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Getting there & around
There are many flights to Amsterdam from
London and regional airports, with carriers
including British Airways, EasyJet, KLM and
Vueling. ba.com easyjet.com klm.com
vueling.com
Travelling by rail is almost as quick as flying.
Take the Eurostar to Brussels, then the
high-speed Thalys train to Amsterdam.
eurostar.com
Amsterdam is a compact city with an
excellent public transport network, which
includes buses, trams, metro trains and ferries.
Bikes can be rented from MacBike, near
Amsterdam Centraal station. macbike.nl
Free ferries to Amsterdam North (including
NDSM Wharf) depart regularly from behind
Amsterdam Centraal. Sightseeing trips on the
Tourist can be arranged through the concierge
at Pulitzer Amsterdam.Places mentioned
Pulitzer Amsterdam.
pulitzeramsterdam.com
Grand Hotel Amrâth. amrathamsterdam.com
De Silveren Spiegel. desilverenspiegel.com
Restaurant As. restaurantas.nl
National Maritime Museum.
hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl
Museum Van Loon. museumvanloon.nl
NDSM Wharf. ndsm.nl
A’DAM Toren. adamlookout.com
Rolling Kitchens.
rollendekeukens.amsterdam/en
Kitchen of the Unwanted Animal.
T: 00 31 641 797 683.More info
The main visitor centre is outside Amsterdam
Centraal station.
iamsterdam.comHow to do it
KIRKER HOLIDAYS has three nights, including
travel and accommodation at the five-star
Pulitzer Amsterdam on a B&B basis from £876
per person. kirkerholidays.comESSENTIALS
ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMERhaving shipped out long ago, their offices now
given over to guest rooms.
It’s a similar story elsewhere. NDSM
Wharf — Amsterdam’s biggest shipyard
before it went bankrupt in the 1980s — is
now a gritty hub of contemporary art. The
industrial wasteland behind Amsterdam
Centraal has been transformed by the space-
age architecture of the EYE Film Institute
Netherlands, while the oil refinery tower next
door has just reopened as the A’DAM Toren,
its focus on cutting-edge music.
Perhaps this is the new Golden Age, a
waterfront renaissance driven by culture
and food, an age of experiment and urban
expression whose eddies and swirls will
throw up their very own Dutch masters to
be lauded in years to come. But that’s for
the passage of time. Right now, I’ve a dinner
reservation to keep.
An hour later, and there it is at last, pinky-
red against the bucket, pincers raised at me
with justified mistrust. This is one of several
caught last night for the restaurant by Rick
Kruyswyk, who’s brought it to the table for me
to see before it’s dispatched to the pot with
the others. A canal lobster. Or, more properly,
a red swamp crayfish, an invasive species
originally from the US that’s flourishing in the
cleaner water of the canals.
I feel a pang of sympathy for the
condemned as the crayfish eyes me from his
container, but the pang quickly disappears
when I reach out to pick him up and he
clamps his claws onto my finger. In between
the yells (mine) and stifled giggles (his), Rick
explains there’s no place for sentimentality.
“Red crayfish eat fish eggs, they kill the
native European crayfish, and they dig holes
in the dykes. It’s our duty to eat them!”
So, when Luuk Langendijk — the chef
here at Restaurant As — brings me a starter
of crayfish tails with a mustard dip, I grab
a fork and do my duty. Then I do it again by
consuming a main course of crayfish bouillon
with ribbons of white asparagus. The meat is
sweet, a touch smoky, and quite delicious.
As the plates are cleared, I ponder how
many other people can claim to have been
bitten by their own dinner. For all the canal
lobster’s allure, I decide the van Loons had it
right. It’s safer to stick to herring.Amsterdam
NETHERLANDSGrand HotelAmrâthNEMO
Science MuseumBasilica of
St NicholasMuseum Van LoonCentral
StationHotel
PulitzerEm
pe
ror’s(^) Can
al (^) (Keize
rsgracht)
Ge
ntl
em
an’s
(^) Canal
(Herengracht)
Brew
ers’
Canal
(Bro
uwe
rsgrach
t) Het IJ
WESTERDOK
JORDAAN
NIEUWEZIJDE
OUDE
ZIJDE
500 yards
ABOVE: Freshly cooked canal lobster (red swamp
crayfish), Restaurant AS
AMSTERDAM